In a bizarre conversation on Thursday's The View, co-host Sunny Hostin admitted she was "enlightened" by conservative friends over Democrats not accepting the 2016 election results. In the midst of the hosts fuming over Republicans/President Trump not accepting the 2020 presidential election results, Hostin brought up how some friends recently opened up her eyes on the left's hypocrisy of accepting election results:
HOSTIN: I spoke to some friends the other day. Some Republican friends, and um they're -- they said something interesting to me. They said that four years ago when Trump won, Democrats refused to accept the results, that Democrats, you know, opened up investigations into the Trump campaign, you know, were saying that the election had been rigged, that Russia helped elect him-- They said to me, why do people now feel that Trump supporters are being so bizarre when they're just doing the same exact thing the Democrats did four years ago? And I --
But before she could finish her point, co-host Whoopi Goldberg interrupted to defend the left because Russians DID help Trump win in the 2016 election:
"How is it possible that people miss the fact that the Russians did mess with the election? That people did meet with the Russians when they should not have? When we don't have the -- that's not how stuff is done, so I don't understand how suddenly everyone forgets the reality and we had to investigate because the law said we did!" she insisted.
Hostin still strangely pushed back with the conservative talking point: “Isn't there something to be said that people did act badly?” she asked as her outraged co-hosts talked over her. Maybe The View producers thought there was too much agreement among the all-liberal panel with Meghan McCain gone on maternity leave.
Co-host Joy Behar also justified Democrats “acting badly” by saying that “no one in their right mind” could believe Trump legitimately won the election, so of course they had to "look into it:"
BEHAR: When Trump won in 2016, no one in this country in their right mind could believe that the American people would vote for somebody who called people rapists, who grabbed women by the genitals, who made up a lie about President Obama. They just couldn't believe it, so it must have been rigged in their minds. So they looked into it. This is different. We now know that he tried to get the Ukraine to get on board to help him so we have proof that he's cheated.
Whoopi also kept trying to defend Democrat hypocrisy as witch hunts into the Trump administration as completely justified, while again questioning the legitimacy of his 2016 win:
GOLDBERG: Yes, before that. But even before that, there were things that said, this is incorrect. We need to look into it. They looked into everything having to do with Biden and Obama to see if they were -- they weren't after them. These were things that came up and people said, should we look into it? Said, yeah, check it out, but the idea that none of that happened, that he sailed in without any help, without any questionable --
BEHAR: That's right. That's not true.
GOLDBERG: -- Tactics, you know, because we didn't -- we didn't take him to court. We the people didn't take him to court to say that this is wrong…
After some more pushback from co-host Sara Haines saying these two situations weren’t the same, Hostin argued her point one more time:
HOSTIN: Yeah, you know, I tend to agree with you, Sara, but it's interesting that one of the friends that I spoke to, we have been friends for a long time. He's not some maniac. You know he's extremely reasonable, and the way he explained it to me was, well, we did sort of institutionalize the feeling that Trump was illegitimate through investigations and through impeachment and so it's no surprise that there are 70 million people who voted for him that believe it's not possible that he lost, you know, in a non rigged election, and I have to say, for the first time I sort of -- I thought that was kind of enlightening because I was pretty shocked when Trump was elected, and I was very supportive of the impeachment efforts. I thought there was evidence to support his impeachment, but I think I can understand why 70 million people feel that they were robbed of their vote.... It makes a little sense to me.
Her co-hosts kept arguing with her as the segment ended. While all this was interesting to hear from the super-liberal host, it's a little hard to believe she's being authentic since she and her co-hosts spent the last four years raging and spreading conspiracy theories about how President Trump didn't win the 2016 legitimately.
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Read relevant transcript portions below:
The View
12/10/2020
SUNNY HOSTIN: You know Whoopi--I spoke -- I spoke to some friends the other day. Some Republican friends, and um they're -- they said something interesting to me. They said that four years ago when Trump won, Democrats refused to accept the results, that Democrats, you know, opened up investigations into the Trump campaign, you know, were saying that the election had been rigged, that Russia helped elect him.
GOLDBERG: Right.
HOSTIN: Elect Trump.
GOLDBERG: [scoffs] So now, they also have forgotten that that happened?
HOSTIN: They said to me, why do people now feel that Trump supporters are being so bizarre when they're just doing the same exact thing the Democrats did four years ago. And I --
GOLDBERG: Actually --
HOSTIN: I took that. Go ahead.
GOLDBERG:: How is it possible that people miss the fact that the Russians did mess with the election? [laughs] That people did meet with the Russians when they should not have? When we don't have the -- that's not how stuff is done, so I don't understand how suddenly everyone forgets the reality and we had to investigate because the law said we did. I don't get that part. So all I can go back to is my God, you know, if Obama had even passed a Russian on the street, what would have happened? I just -- I don't understand that. Everybody's --
[chuckling]
HOSTIN: But isn't there something to be said for that?
JOY BEHAR: No one could believe that the United States --
HOSTIN: Isn't there something to be said that people did act badly?
GOLDBERG:: I think so.
BEHAR: When Trump won in 2016, no one in this country in their right mind could believe that the American people would vote for somebody who called people rapists, who grabbed women by the genitals, who made up a lie about President Obama. They just couldn't believe it, so it must have been rigged in their minds. So they looked into it. This is different. We now know that he tried to get the Ukraine to get on board to help him so we have proof that he's cheated.
GOLDBERG:: Yes, before that. But even before that, there were things that said, this is incorrect. We need to look into it. They looked into everything having to do with Biden and Obama to see if they were -- they weren't after them. These were things that came up and people said, should we look into it? Said, yeah, check it out, but the idea that none of that happened, that he sailed in without any help, without any questionable --
BEHAR: That's right. That's not true.
GOLDBERG:-- Tactics, you know, because we didn't -- we didn't take him to court. We the people didn't take him to court to say that this is wrong. This is -- this is all the senators and all those people who are saying, ‘well, you know, we're going to poop all over this’, and I guess that's what this is, if what you are saying, Sunny, is this is really a retaliation. This has nothing to do with the people that voted. This is retaliatory.
…
SARA HAINES: Yes. I wanted to respond. Sunny was saying she had spoken with some Republican friends who often compare this election to the one in 2016 saying, well, you know, you guys couldn't accept it in 2016, you know, this is the same thing. Why should we accept it? I don't think these are equivalents at all. For this reason that anecdotally, yes we can argue among friends with the different things Hillary was dealing with with James Comey, Russian interference, all these different things. But she conceded and she said, this is a peaceful transfer of power. He won, and we moved on. Although conversationally we talked about it, you have the highest -- literally the highest office of the land right now engaging the party to try to turn over electoral votes. You have people that are having -- the president is calling for people to show up as recently as the election to polling sites to threaten people about the results. Watching over their shoulder. It's being brought to the Supreme Court twice. Like, these legal actions using the resources of the government to try to undo itself. We've never seen that before. So these are not two equals at all.
HOSTIN: Yeah, you know, I tend to agree with you, Sara, but it's interesting that one of the friends that I spoke to, we have been friends for a long time. He's not some maniac. You know he's extremely reasonable, and the way he explained it to me was, well, we did sort of institutionalize the feeling that Trump was illegitimate through investigations and through impeachment and so it's no surprise that there are 70 million people who voted for him that believe it's not possible that he lost, you know, in a non rigged election, and I have to say, for the first time I sort of -- I thought that was kind of enlightening because I was pretty shocked when Trump was elected, and I was very supportive of the impeachment efforts. I thought there was evidence to support his impeachment, but I think I can understand why 70 million people feel that they were robbed of their vote.
HAINES: Investigations --
HOSTIN: It makes a little sense to me.
GOLDBERG: But when you say that, you are then acknowledging that the people who ran these elections throughout this country cheated. That's what is being said.
HOSTIN: Yeah, I don't believe they cheated.
GOLDBERG: Okay. So that's important to know because when we talk about Russia and the investigations, that's a cheat. They seemed to discover that there were problems. Now, you know, I knew he was going to win and I've said it all along, and I felt he was going to win because people believed he was the person they saw on television, and, you know, people love television stars. So that was not a surprise to me. Discovering that there was so much help with the bots, with all the things going on that went on in that 2016, and then watching him throughout the four years do absolutely nothing to make the country seem better, I just -- I think people were just annoyed and yeah, they were annoyed, but that's what you do. Your guy doesn't win and you kvetch about it, but you accept it because there's a peaceful transfer. This stuff saying, it's illegitimate and the election is illegitimate is basically saying all those people who worked their cans off to make sure that it was a fair and clear election because they didn't want this kind of stuff going on, they're saying you all cheated and we're in the right, and that you cannot do, and you've got 4,000 courts saying, um this doesn't make any sense, and people going into court not saying, here's how the cheat happened, but saying, well, it feels like it's possible that they could have because they won't say that it's cheating because no one wants to -- no one wants to get themselves in trouble. None of it makes sense to me. You know. So that's how I think. That's how we go get them. That's how we talk to folks and say, listen. Yeah, we all kvetch when our guy doesn't win, but we don't blame the people of the United States....
